Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus configured to transmit print data.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there have been techniques for printing via a server. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-275063 discusses a system including an information processing apparatus, a server, and an image forming apparatus. In the system, the information processing apparatus transmits print data to the server, and if the image forming apparatus is in a printable state, the server transmits the print data to the image forming apparatus.
Meanwhile, there are cases where an image forming apparatus cannot print a document file stored in an information processing apparatus when the document file is directly transmitted from the information processing apparatus to the image forming apparatus. Thus, in the present specification, a configuration will be described in which a document file is transmitted to a conversion server and converted into print data by the conversion server, and the converted print data is transmitted to an image forming apparatus.
In the foregoing configuration, there are two possible methods for the acquisition of print data by the image forming apparatus. The first method is a method in which print data is acquired once by the information processing apparatus from the conversion server and then transmitted to the image forming apparatus via the information processing apparatus. The second method is a method in which print data is acquired by the image forming apparatus directly from the conversion server without being transmitted through the information processing apparatus.
In a case where the second method is adopted, there is a problem in that whether an image forming apparatus selected by a user is capable of acquiring print data directly from the conversion server in unknown. On the other hand, in a case where the first method is always adopted, since print data is transmitted via the information processing apparatus, the print start time may be delayed due to the time required for the transmission of the print data via the information processing apparatus, compared to the second method.
The technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-275063 may have similar problems, since such problems are not discussed therein.